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The Propaganda Files

Propaganda has been the backbone of anti-drug groups since the early 1900s. From sensationally locking up doctors who once prescribed morphine and heroin to reefer madness that promised the devil weed would make you a murderer. From the ice epidemic to crack babies. Nothing has escaped the imagination of those trying to create fear and panic amongst the public. To this day, the missing ingredients still in most anti-drug messages are the truth and reality. The key ingredient ... propaganda.

Drug propaganda is a mix of believing the public are gullible and the techniques used in Hilter’s “Big Lie” strategy. Not surprisingly, the techniques used by Hitler are startling similar to those used by anti-drug crusaders.

Never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.-Hitler’s tactics to gain power. Big Lie - Wikipedia

Introducing The Propaganda Files. A regular feature that looks at some of the best/worst anti-drug messages that would make the nazi’s proud. Some will make you angry. Some will make you shake your head in disbelief. Most though will make you laugh.

ARTICLES

Because We Care
March 2009: There’s no better way to start The Propaganda Files than with this cracker. From the Drug Free America Foundation(DFAF), home of the infamous Calvina Fay comes this loving gesture. Drug testing is because they care. Yes, employers and schools only drug test you because they have your best interests at heart.

Drugs on the Table
NSW Police Minister: Tough On Drugs ... Soft On Maths ... Even Softer On Reality
April 2009: There’s an old saying in the world of fighting drug crime - “Drugs on the Table”. When a politician or senior police officer need some publicity that they are being tough on drugs, they would produce piles of confiscated narcotics and put them on display for the press and public to admire. Then a few important people would stand behind it, declaring they are taking drugs off the street. The saying is still used today ... except without the table. The press loves to report on mountains of drugs and the public see it as a success in the fight against the illegal trade. All of which suits the PR machine behind our anti-drug, crime fighting heroes.

Foundation For A Drug Free World
They Lied - Find Out The Truth About Drugs
May 2009: The anti-drug campaign by the Foundation for a Drug Free World(FDFW) aptly titled, They Lied - Find Out the Truth About Drugs, paints a scary picture of what drugs will do to you and appears to be aimed squarely at teenagers. But there is a huge flaw in this campaign - they assume teenagers are all naive and inherently gullible.

The Netherlands - The Mecca of Sin?
August 2009: I have just read another article explaining why cannabis legalisation won’t work. And their proof ... The Netherlands. Prohibitionists and moral crusaders portray The Netherlands, especially Amsterdam as some sort of amoral hell, streets lined with prostitutes and having to step over strung out junkies in the gutter. A demised nation lost in a selfish orgy of forbidden flesh and rampant drug use. Jeepers, I wouldn’t even go there.

September 2010: It is probably one of the most famous anti-drug campaigns in the US. The The Montana Meth Project or as it commonly known, The Faces of Meth was so popular in Montana that several states including Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Wyoming, Colorado, Hawaii and Georgia, took it up. It’s success was impressive and it fitted in with the usual scare campaigns that make politicians and parents so happy. The problem was that no one outside the organisation had actually studied it’s so called success. And when someone did, the MMP’s results fell well short of their grandeur claims of success.

Anti-drug zealots are rubbing their hands together with glee as drivers are dying on the roads. Their message is that drug-driving causes more deaths than drink-driving and they have statistics to prove it. For a group that usually overlooks facts and statistics, it’s surprising they take these new findings on board with such excitement. But when you actually look closer at their proof, it becomes clear they are comparing oranges and apples.

The Australian Heroin Diaries has been chosen as one of the top 8 blogs in 2009 by AllTreatment.com:

This is a news driven blog, that writes about and commentates on different countries drug policies. The author is a recovering heroin addict which gives a unique view and a much different one from politicians on drug politics. A must read for anyone interested in the politics of drug use and substance abuse.